Bothered
by She's a Star
Summary: Poor Giles is forced to endure the company of a lovestruck, Xander-fixated Jenny. Can he manage to maintain his sanity? (Set during 'Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered'.)


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Bothered

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by She's a Star

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Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the property of one Joss Whedon, who, coincidentally, is not me.

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Author's Note: As Jenny's behavior is wildly amusing in 'Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered', I really couldn't resist doing a fic in which Giles is forced to endure it. This is set after they leave the library to go find Amy.

This is for Milla, just 'cause. :-)

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Well, this was just excellent.

"Do you really think that we should leave Xander alone in the library like that?" Jenny inquired, making yet another valiant attempt to pull her hand out of Giles's grasp. He squeezed her fingers even more tightly and quickened his pace.

"You know," Jenny continued, "What with the vampires and all. Maybe I should go back and . . . see if he's all right."

"Jenny," Giles said through clenched teeth, "I know that merely . . . seeing if he is all right certainly wouldn't be your intention."

"Jealous, are we, Rupert?" she asked loftily.

"_What_?"

Jealous. Of Xander Harris.

This was just too much.

"You know, I tried to make up with you," Jenny continued. "I tried to salvage our relationship, but you wouldn't have anything to do with it. You _cannot_ blame this on me just because I've moved on and you're still alone--"

"You have not 'moved on'," he said, more sharply than he'd intended to, and she gave a small squeak that indicated his grip on her hand was now borderlining lethal. "Er, sorry." He tentatively let go of her hand, which proved to be a mistake - she immediately spun on her heel and sprinted back toward the library. Sighing, he bounded after her and managed to sling an arm around her waist. She attempted to swat him away.

_Wonderful_, he thought dryly. _The first relationship I've had in years, and now she's attempting to beat me away in order to be with a seventeen year old boy._

"You can't keep us apart, Rupert, no matter how hard you try," Jenny informed him. 

"I'll keep that in mind," he returned evenly. They had to find Amy and put a stop to this nonsense before Jenny drove him completely insane.

"You know, if you start acting more civilized about this, I might consider inviting you to the wedding."

"Oh, for God's _sake_, Jenny!" he exploded. A few passing freshman girls, both of whom had been mumbling something about how adorable Xander's left pinkie finger was, jumped in surprise.

"You're making a scene," she informed him.

"You're giving me reason to," he snapped back. "Listen, Jenny, I do realize that you're under some sort of . . . of ridiculous spell, and what you're saying isn't your fault, but could you at the very least _try_ to be logical? You're twice his age."

"I am _not_!" she cried indignantly.

"Well . . . uh, actually, yes you are," he said. "He's seventeen, you're thirty-four, and seventeen plus seventeen--"

"Okay! Fine! I get it," she grumbled. "But what does age have to do with anything when it's true love?"

"But it _isn't_ true love," he reminded her. "It's a spell."

"Are you questioning my feelings for him?" she inquired, her eyes flashing dangerously. "I love Xander."

"No, you don't," he replied patiently, then added darkly to himself, "But I'll be damned if I try to reason with you right now."

"Besides," Jenny continued, her voice irritatingly superior, "_You're_ ten years older than I am, and that didn't stop you from asking me out, now did it?"

"I don't see how our relationship has anything to do with this, especially as you've . . . how did you put it? ah, yes - 'moved on'," he replied, unable to keep the disdain from his tone. "And anyhow, you were the one to ask me to the game, not the opposite."

"Oh, right," she said distractedly; a rather dreamy smile made its way onto her face. "Xander showed up. I remember. Mmmm--"

"Jenny, we are trying to find Amy," he reminded her sharply. "Please keep your . . . Xander fantasies to yourself."

She snorted. "Gladly."

"Good."

"Good," she echoed, glaring at him.

They walked in silence, during which Giles attempted to compile a list as to why it would be unwise to kill Xander the next time he saw him. _Well, for one thing, Buffy and Willow might be upset . . . the way this is going, the entire female populace would be distraught. And of course there's the unfortunate issue of police charges, and jail, and--_

"You know, Rupert, I really thought we had something," Jenny said; he was so surprised at her words that he froze in the middle of the hall. She groaned, frustrated. "Now what? Keep going. The sooner we find this Amy girl, the sooner I can get back to Xander."

"Yes," he agreed hastily. "Of course."

Perhaps it would be best for his own mental health to discard the consequences and destroy Xander as quickly and painlessly as possible.

"He looked so sexy in that shirt . . ."

. . . Or perhaps 'slowly and agonizingly' would be far more adequate.

Not particularly eager to hear a long and detailed proclamation of Xander's apparent sex appeal, Giles opted instead to ask, "What . . . what precisely did you mean about thinking that we had something?"

She shrugged, seemingly unabashed by the question. "Things felt different with you. I mean, thinking about you made me smile. And . . . I don't know. I didn't tell you about my past, or why I was here, because . . . to go horribly maudlin on you, I'd been getting used to being Jenny Calendar instead of Janna, and when you came along it pretty much sealed the deal. I'd say you made me complete, if I were one for Lifetime - movie - of - the - week dialogue."

He found himself at once overcome at how horribly difficult she'd made everything. He _had_ to side with Buffy here, he knew he did, and as long as his slayer refused to forgive Jenny, then he had no choice but to support her decision and back it up. It should have been simple enough, and would have been, if it weren't for Jenny's pleading glances when they passed in the hallways and determined yet failed attempts to get him to listen to her.

And now he was standing very close to her, with his arm wrapped around her waist and the mingling scents of her perfume and flowery shampoo nearly overwhelming his senses. It would be so very easy just to kiss her now, and he hated knowing that he couldn't.

_She lied_, he reminded himself sternly. _She lied and pretended to be someone that she wasn't, and it's because of her that Angel's lost his soul. She could have helped prevent it, but she didn't. Buffy won't forgive her, and nor can I._

"You know, it's a good thing that I realized my feelings for Xander," Jenny continued. "_He'll_ forgive me. I wonder if he misses me yet . . . maybe we should go back."

Ah, yes. And there was also this dreadfully unfortunate spell business that made him rather want to kill something.

"He has the nicest eyes . . ."

"Jenny?" he asked, with as much dignity as he could muster.

"And his lips . . ." She sighed before seeming to realize that Giles was, in fact, there. "Oh. What?"

"Do please shut up before I hurt you."

She scowled. "Fine."

"Thank you," he said composedly, and felt a surge of relief as he spotted a blonde head at the end of the hallway. At least they'd found Amy - hopefully, he could reason with her and a stop would be put to all of this.

"Somebody's je-alous," Jenny sang out in a tone that was, unfortunately for her, all too audible.

_Stay calm_, he instructed himself. _It's not her fault that she's acting like this. It's that damned spell._

"Jenny, I'm sure that you're being . . . torn apart by your overwhelming love for . . ." oh, he couldn't bring himself to say it. "Yes, well - but would you please try to behave amicably? It will make this all much simpler."

"Hey," she said, staring at him a bit strangely. "You stopped calling me 'Ms. Calendar'."

"Oh." Damn. He hadn't even realized. "Um . . . yes, I suppose I did."

She grinned at him. "Too bad everything's over between us, England. You're not so bad."

It was irritating, really, that her smile had to be so radiant; and very distracting, at that. He concluded that he would most likely be getting rid of this spell business much more quickly if it weren't for the fact that he rather liked being this close to her again, and with a logical reason. After all, if he let go, she'd certainly go running back to Xander as quickly as her high heels could carry her.

Besides, he was fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to wrap his arms around her of his own accord anytime soon. Far too many things had surfaced to allow any sort of romance between them to progress, or at least not for awhile.

He missed her, but that wasn't important. Duty, and stopping Angelus, and how Buffy was holding up - these were the issues that he needed to face, and he would.

"Ugh," Jenny muttered to him in a tone eerily reminiscent of a teenage girl gossiping to her friend, "_Look_ at Amy. She probably thinks that Xander's going to fall all over her. Ha. Like that's happening. If she lays one finger on him, I'll . . ."

Ah, yes. And the spell.

"Shh," he instructed her in an undertone. "You must be polite to her, Jenny, that's imperative. Otherwise this can't be fixed."

"Fine, fine," Jenny agreed reluctantly. "I'll be nice to Blondie."

"Thank you." Good. Hopefully, all of this would be over soon enough, and the prospect was welcome beyond words.

. . . Though really he wasn't sure he'd even be able to endure hearing Jenny talk about Xander again, whether she was under the influence of a love spell or not.

But that didn't mean that he was jealous, of course. Jealous! Ha! The very idea was utterly ridiculous.

He was merely . . . bothered.

"Do you think I'd be too forward if I asked Xander over to my place tonight?"

"Very much so," he returned bluntly.

Oh, yes. Quite bothered indeed.

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Fin!


End file.
